Something new from Bruichladdich

Yes, we're in the midst of a beer festival, so here's news of a new drink for you to try, and, er, it's not an ale at all. It is in fact a gin. But no ordinary gin. However, it is quite quirky, and very Scottish, so fits the Clachaig requirements quite nicely.

Fist off, The Botanist Islay Dry Gin is from the Bruichladdich Distillery on Islay. Yes, a whisky distillery. And whilst we know all about beer and can wax lyrical on the subject for some time, we had to do our homework when it comes to gin.  That we did, and instead of regurgitating everything we learned about gin on our own blog, trying to edit the wording a little so that it isn't a direct copy, perhaps it's best to say take a peek at this short and concise summary of the Botanist on a gin blog (yes, they do exist!)

Next time you fancy a gin, forget that mass produced stuff in the green bottle that has the misfortune to share a name with that craggy faced, foul mouthed, f****ng chef who gets paid a fortune to advertise it as a consequence, check out the imposter amongst the malts on the 'top shelf' and order a Botanist Islay Dry Gin.

But don't delay! It's a limited edition and there's only 15,000 bottles available (and we have 12 of them!)

A tad breezy

Isn't summer fantastic! The weather across Scotland today is just incredibly horrendous. If this was November we'd be shrugging it off as a winter storm and looking forward to the summer. But for the last week of May it takes some believing. Always looking on the bright side of life, at least when it's blowing 80mph it's going to hard for the midgies to get you!

Right now the storm is still raging. We're missing a few slates, and we're watching the mountain ash trees outside the office move the grass as the trees swing from side to side. Our lovely straight tall silver birch has already toppled, narrowly missing Gordon's car (he moved it with seconds to spare). A really nice laburnum outside Oak Lodge has also gone, and there's a few more trees looking like they might be horizontal by the time the afternoon is out. Chainsaws at dawn tomorrow!

Elsewhere, the A82 closed at the NTS in Glencoe for a while - due to a fallen tree. Our back road to the village became a bit of a rat run as 2 way trunk road traffic tried to get past each other on a single track road. Fallen trees blocking that road soon put an end to that! All seems to be open again now.

And out on Loch Linnhe, with a clear fetch of water from the south west, the waves and the spray is quite spectacular. Just white. All over white. Absolutely howling!

After last week we thought that May's weather couldn't get any worse. How wrong we were!